DENYING WATER
Israel’s oppression of the
Palestinian people can bewitnessed on a
number of fronts, including the supply
of water.
For years, Israel has employed measures
which ensure they control many of the
vital water sources on the Palestinian
territories and have denied the
Palestinians usage of these water
resources.
While Palestinians in the West Bank and
Gaza are restricted in the amount of
water they have access to, illegal
Israeli settlers in the West Bank enjoy
swimming pools and water sprinklers for
their gardens.
An estimated 115 settlements have been
built over resource rich areas. In April
2001, Ariel Sharon told an Israeli
newspaper: “it’s not by accident that
the settlements are located where they
are... we have to hold the western
security area, which is adjacent to the
Green Line, and the eastern security
area along the Jordan River and the
roads linking the two. And Jerusalem, of
course. And the hill aquifer”.
In the West Bank, there is minimal
investment in waste water systems.
According to the World Bank, only 31% of
the West Bank Palestinians are connected
to a sewage network. It has also been
stated that only ‘4 towns have
wastewater treatment plants’ and also
that the ‘untreated sewage contaminates
ground water, wadi beds and agricultural
fields. This not only produces a threat
to the people but also the environment.
Where the Water Comes From
The two main sources of water inside
Palestine/Israel are surface water and
ground water.
Surface water is water that flows
permanently in the form of rivers, or is
collected in wadis or held in seasonal
reservoirs. The main surface water
resource is the Jordan River Basin, with
the Sea of Galilee as the main regional
freshwater lake. Groundwater is the
primary source of the Palestinian
freshwater supply and is comprised of
the West Bank aquifer systems and the
Gaza strip aquifer that is recharged by
rainfall.
The West Bank aquifer system is made up
of three basins: the Western, Eastern
and North-Eastern. The Gaza strip
aquifer is part of the Coastal Aquifer
Basin, which lies underneath both the
Gaza strip and adjacent areas of Israel.
Who’s In Control?
After the Palestinian territories were
occupied in 1967, Israel used Military
Orders to make all the water resources
in the area public property.
The land alongside the River Jordan was
also declared closed military zones and
all Palestinian farmers were excluded
from farming in the area.
Israel has created a system that
prevents the Palestinians from utilising
their water resources in a manner that
meets their basic needs. Israeli water
company ‘Merkorot’ controls most of the
Palestinian water supply. This company
provides Palestinians with water which
is initially stolen from Palestinian
sources, and then charges them for it.
In this way, Palestinians are being made
to pay Israel for the use of resources
which are actually rightfully theirs.
Merkorot is responsible for about half
the Palestinian water needs in the
summer months and the company reduces
the amount of available water by up to
25% to compensate for the higher demand
in Israel and the settlements in the
occupied territories.
Palestinians seeking to dig wells are
also restricted from doing so by Israel
and limits are placed on the depth of
wells dug by Palestinians, and these are
often a quarter of the depth of Israeli
dug wells.
Sewage problems
Sewage is a major problem in the Gaza
strip and the West Bank. The Red Cross
reported in June 2009 that 69 million
litres of partially treated sewage or
untreated sewage (the equivalent of 28
Olympic size swimming pools) are pumped
directly into the Mediterranean because
they cannot be treated. The siege on
Gaza has also meant that the sewage
works that do exist were shut down on
occasions from lack of electricity.
The settlements which take the water
from the Occupied Territories also
return it as sewage. Researchers in
B’Tselem produced a Report called ‘Foul
Play’ (2007) and in this described how
approximately a third of wastewater from
the settlements was not treated but
simply flowed as raw wastewater into
Palestinian valleys and streams.
Operation Cast Lead
Following Israel’s war on Gaza, only
5-10% of the Gaza aquifer provides
drinkable water.
Limited electricity and few resources
means that over half of the households
in Gaza do not have access to a water
network. It was reported by the Red
Cross in 2009 that the water
infrastructure was ‘overloaded...subject
to breakdown’ and furthermore ‘thousands
of homes only have access to running
water on certain days’.
Unrecognised Villages
It is also worth mentioning that the
Palestinians living inside
Israel and the problems they face on a
daily basis are often forgotten. As many
as 100 Palestinian and Bedouin
communities are seen as ‘unrecognised
villages’ as Israel refuses to
acknowledge their existence and so they
also have no water access.
With no official status afforded to
their
communities, the residents receive no
government services and their homes are
targets for demolition
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